


And In Letters, Grace

by mihrsuri



Category: The West Wing
Genre: Character Study, Collection: Purimgifts Day 2, Community: purimgifts, Female Characters, Gen, Jewish Character, Purim, Writing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-16
Updated: 2013-02-16
Packaged: 2017-11-29 12:32:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 494
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/686995
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mihrsuri/pseuds/mihrsuri
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A consideration of handwriting within the Bartlet Whitehouse.</p>
            </blockquote>





	And In Letters, Grace

**Author's Note:**

  * For [misslucy21](https://archiveofourown.org/users/misslucy21/gifts).



                                                            

 

Ainsley writes neatly, which surprises no one. Her handwriting is neat, the kind that teachers would hold up as perfect examples of printed handwriting. Even when she's writing in a hurry, she'll write neatly and precisely. It seems oddly apt for her, though perhaps not so much for a lawyer who works in quick notes, quick thoughts.  

But that's Ainsley Hayes. In some things, she is truly odd. A Republican working for a Democratic White House, an idealistic lawyer with a whole heap of steel and strong conviction. She's learned to not apologise for who she is, mostly. 

-

Josh's handwriting is exactly what you'd expect - chaos. Total and utter chaos, with loops and lines and all the squiggles you could imagine. He doesn't generally like to handwrite things - especially things that have to be read by other people (usually he dictates that to Donna, who does in fact have better handwriting. But he always handwrites the messages in gifts or greeting cards or personal letters. 

It's just a thing that he feels he needs to do. 

-

Margaret (when not forging signatures) actually writes in slanted lettering - long slopes of someone used to taking notes and writing in odd places (bars, cafes, airplanes, squashed in to a subway train...) and in a way that suggests that sometimes her brain moves too fast for her writing hand. There are always scribbles and crossed out notes in odd spots - let alone the edits on the typed and printed drafts (most of the drafts are more pen corrections than typed words by the time Margaret has finished) but it's always been the way she goes, the way she writes. 

-

CJ writes in looping cursive. Well actually, when she's forced into writing by hand (CJ is not a fan of the process - she prefers her laptop because she tends to end up with random bits and pieces of paper with odd notes on them that she finds six months later and cannot remember what on earth she'd written down - it's much easier to organize them in a virtual notepad where she can categorize and give herself reminders. Though she used to use different coloured post it's for a similar purpose. 

She writes carefully. Josh is the only one who tends to get all in caps print. 

-

Jed Bartlet has learned Leo's handwriting - it's quirks and its character. It takes him longer to learn that of his Senior Staff. In the beginning he does not want to know them, does not particularly want to learn their names or their character - he's too caught up in the terror of this Thing that Leo has dragged him in to. After, after Josh and the airport, he starts to pay attention. He sees CJ carefully looping her y's, Josh trying (and failing) to make his handwriting legible. And lately, Ainsley and her neat letters and Donna and her similarily neat letters. 

He learns them all as he learns that they are family now. 

-

 


End file.
